January 23rd, 2012
You’ll be seeing the graph below a lot in the next few days and weeks. Often the headline will read “20 per cent of Americans Own an e-Reader” or “Tablet and E-Book Reader Ownership Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period” which is the theme of the Pew report announcement. But the big number appears on page…
January 19th, 2012
At first I thought we should blame ourselves for getting our knickers all in a knot when the rumors started circulating that Steve Jobs’ deadly forces of disruption, honoring his dying wishes, had turned their sights on textbooks. But don’t we frighten easily! Then I felt angry at Apple.
January 11th, 2012
According to public filings on the Canadian Heritage website (link broken), the Government of Canada contributed $4,166,190 to McClelland & Stewart between 2000 and 2011 via several programs designed to aid Canadian-owned publishers (link broken).
January 10th, 2012
Cultures die symbolically. Canadian culture took a major hit on Monday with the sale of Canada’s most important book publisher, McClelland & Stewart. Canada’s largest university, the University of Toronto, took a gift horse and sold it to the Bertelsmann AG, the fifth-largest book publisher in the world, via its proxy, Random House of Canada.
January 4th, 2012
How I wish that were a compliment. It likely would have been in 2004 when Best Buy was named “Company of the Year” by Forbes. Today it’s an insult. Or a threat. Or a doom-filled prediction.